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Thursday, July 16, 2009

A Diagnosis + A Tempo Run

I finally went to the doctor. Nope...not because of the ab pain that's been plaguing me for 4 months, but for my poor eye balls. :( I've had what looks like pink eye for the last few weeks. I get this eye condition at least twice a year (it stems from my stupid allergies), and it's more of a pain the butt than anything. It usually clears up on its own, and the times it hasn't, I've had to empty my pocketbook to pay for the teeny tiny bottle of drops. On top of the pain and extreme redness in my eye, it decided to start being extremely sensitive to light. As in, on my drive to work at 11am my eye was pouring. Once I got in to the office I had to turn my light off and shut my window and still my eyes were killing me.

I went to the eye doctor and got diagnosed with allergic conjunctivitis. My stupid Rx was $64 for the GENERIC brand. Ugh. So annoyed. I work for a non-profit, I'm a poor gal. I'm fairly certain that the price for the drops per fluid mL is more expensive then crack-cocaine. I'm guessing anyway, not too big on the street drugs. The doctor instructed me no contacts for the next 4 days. I thought about telling him I couldn't run with my glasses on, but figured it wouldn't be worth it. :) He put some anesthetic in my eye while I was in his office, but it started wearing off shortly after I ret

urned to the office, so I just called it a day.

After an amazing nap, my eye felt a lot better and I decided to take on my tempo run. I waited until 9pm so that it wouldn't be too bright outside for my poor little eyes. :) I had 5 miles to do, 3 miles at a pace of 8:14. Again I gave myself +/- 5 seconds for a range.

Mile 1 - 9:41 (warm up). I saw a funky little animal. It looked similar to a ferret, but not as long and was dark black. I've never seen anything like it.

Mile 2 - 8:18 contemplated stopping for some mulberries that were growing next to the trail

Mile 3 - 8:06 Gnat #1 dive bombs into my left eye (still infected eye but lesser of the two). Stop. Remove. Continue run. Immediately after, gnat #2 dive bombs into the same eye. I yell, "You've GOTTA be kidding me!" Stop, remove. This must ward off any future gnats, because that was my last encounter of the evening.

Mile 4 - 8:09 It was getting way too dark out, so I was just trying to haul booty to get home.

Mile 5 - 9:02 (cool down). nothing exciting to report about this mile, other than Taylor drove by me 2-3 blocks from my apt. and didn't even recognize me. Turd.

I finished 5 miles in 43:18 for a pace of 8:40. The tempo miles pace was 8:11. Whoo.

The one amazing thing about the run was the fireflies. I've always had an obsession with fireflies. They are so beautiful, and just scream summer time and happiness to me. It was really fun running on the trail sans headphones, just listening to the evening and watching the small light show by the bugs. It was great. And my ab didn't hurt. Double bonus.

When I got home I ate half of a watermelon to hydrate (along with water, of course, but I just couldn't stop eating it). Nomnom. Needless to say, I think I had to go to the bathroom about 6 times during the 8 hours I was sleeping. Hah.